It's time for a new installment of Skip's Tips - a handy guide to bicycles, string theory, and the art of child rearing. Today we're going to talk about racing on your bicycle. I've compiled a few of my sage words of wisdom regarding the passtime of riding bikes real fast in order to gauge self-worth and fitness. They are in no particular order - except that they're in order of importance. Here they are:

1. It's nearly Spring here in the MiddleWestoftheUSA. The snow has largely melted into largely dangerously swollen rivers. Whenever possible, when out on your "training rides" stop and look at the rivers. Comment on how swollen they are. Chuckle to yourself and your riding partners that you just said "swollen" and move on down the road/trail/sidewalk/mall food court.

2. Remember, when "binge drinking" (or as I call it, "drinking") you should probably drink the same kind of liquor or beer all day or night or both. This keeps the hangover cures simpler and takes the guesswork out of what is making you "feel so bad."

3. Training is the act of riding your bike to increase your fitness. While I do not in any way condone getting any fitter than you are right now - you're perfect you beautiful pasty flabby wintery thing! - there are a few things that can help should you choose to ignore that first bit. Ride a heavy bike. No, I don't mean ride a Surly instead of your carpet fibre TDF rocket machine - I mean load your bike up with a bunch of shit. Whenever possible, add a WALD gigantic front basket and fill it with rocks and garbage. If you have the means pull a Burley trailer with your 39lb pre-schooler. Barring that, fill your shirt with cans of paint. Also you might:

4. Eating is important. I start each day with a bacon grease raw egg smoothie. It has bacon grease in it for quickness and a couple of raw eggs for rockiness. Remember, doubling over with the pukes is great for the abs.

5. I've said this many times and each time I do it sounds truer: I don't race because racism is wrong.

Remember kids, riding bikes is fun. No one ever anywhere has ever had any fun while racing their bike. They may say they had fun (or in bicycle parlance "podiumed") but they are lying their asses off. Racing hurts and you know it. Pain isn't fun for anyone but Army Rangers and people who wear cheese grater underwear. Slow it down and have a fun ride where you stop once in a while for a conversation or to knock back a cold one while looking out over fabulous vistas (or snaggly burnt-out slums). Enjoy yourself a little and stop trying to think you have to win all the time. Life is hard enough.

Thanks,

Skip

Then this:

Welcome to Friday.

Thanks friends!  (Actually, they aren't really our friends (but they might be some day (IF THEY'RE LUCKY)) but that's more for their benefit than for ours).

And this other friend of ours, Marlin Ledin, who shares my last name in some Asian countries and really is a friend of ours but usually denies it unless he knows he'll get free beer, sent us this video of himself on the local news up north.  Having just spent last weekend ice fishing and hearing some really cool sounds in the ice makes me wish I were able to do something like this. 

Finally, here is a photo of our own Super Thor mixing it up, throwing down and pwning the nubes on a Pug at Buck Hill last weekend.  Sorry I don't know who took this photo since I stole it off flickr.  [edit] The photo was taken by this guy.  Click this link to see more photos from his flickr set.  Thor, stop being so rad, OK? 

Trackin' Up The North might sum up how normal people feel when they come here during the winter months.  Honestly, I can't understand what brings them back for more.

For the past several years Surly has hosted a Pugsley Race at QBP's industry-only Frostbike event, which took place last weekend.

Due to the depth of the snow this year, what started as a "race" turned into a derby circle around a bonfire.  No one complained about drinking luke warm Hamm's while attempting to knock their commrades of their bike and into the fire or onto the ice.  Go figure.

Rather than me blathering on about it why don't you look at some pictures?  And if you'd like to see more you'll need to go here.  Meanwhile, I'll be sharpening up my blog skills and finishing up the Hamm's and stale pretzels.

You might recognize industry debutante Hurl Everstone from his stock photo below

Last night the aforementioned Hurl, Burnsey, myself, the Mayor of Fruita, Brake Dancin, and a whole batch of real live bicycle luminaries were warming up for the big Frostbike industry hoe-down at One On One Studio. Late in the evening, Everbeard and Burnsey stepped out onto the loading dock out back just in time to see a personage of the crack head demographic making off with one orange Las Cruces of the Salsa variety that was not his own. Burns immediately gave chase on foot, but our man Hurl had the presence of mind to mount up on the crackhead's discarded Huffy and rocket toward justice.

Two blocks later, as cracky-McStealsalot slowed for traffic crossing 4th street, the Bismarck Bruiser rocked a bike cop take down that would have made Ditka proud and nabbed the Salsa back. At the same time he barked a great William Wallace-esque yawp The stunned theif scurried off into the night half blind from the glory of Hurl's grizzled visage. The triumphant return to the shop was met with a volley of high fives and fresh beers.

Our collective hats are off to the man from North Dakota and his heroic save (second one this week really.) It ain't every day that freedom-hating bike jackers get thiern.

Say hello to Larry again for the first time again.

In other news, bikes are still awesome. This weekend, in conjunction with the bicycle industry event formally known as "QBP Open House," but now living post-op under the title "Frostbike," we'll be hosting a bunch of bike shop geeks at the Head Office and dusting off the Pugsley Relay Rally Really? ride. It will look a little like this:

 only with more people, more snow, and fewer video cameras. Hope it works out.

P 

Hi Guys, I am recovering from a jolly good night with your Mr Fleck and his kilt at Core Bike (a bike retailer show in the UK). Thanks Surly. Anyway he said I should share my view that gears cause global warming, it started some debate in the bar... so I have attached the full on info on why we are all doomed and how gears are obviously causing it all. Feel free to pop it on your blog, or where ever, or nowhere.

All the best,
Charlie
England (that’s the old England, not the new one in the colonies)

PRESS RELEASE
DATE: 26/01/10
ISSUED BY: CHARLIE THE BIKEMONGER
SUBJECT: DON’T SHIFT TO GLOBAL WARMING

We have all seen the probable effects of global warming: extreme weather, droughts, floods, icecaps melting, whole species facing extinction, and most agreeable cider apple harvests. There are many common beliefs as to the cause of this “new” weather, and many of these are no doubt correct, however until now one possible suspect has been overlooked.

Charlie The Bikemonger a purveyor of fine cycle produce, has commissioned research in association with The Dorset Institute of Cider Konsumption, that fingers a new previously unsuspected culprit.

When our cycling forefathers embarked upon the apparently noble mechanical crusade to make cycling better, little did they know what consequences their actions would bring. In 1896 an Englishman E.H. Hodgkinson patented a 3-speed Gradient gear, a pre-cursor of the modern derailleur, and from this moment forth the world began to experience increasing global temperatures.

The graph below clearly illustrates the correlation between volume of gears and global temperatures.

Note the slight temperature “spike” in “1940-1949”, is it coincidence that the in 1949 the Hercules Herailleur a rear derailleur with indexed shift levers was launched? It was a mere 3 speed setup, but with indexing… could it be that it’s not only the volume of gears, but also their complexity that fuels global warming?

The 50’s and 60’s saw little gear innovation, but also towards the end of this era we see the birth of BMX and guess what happened with all those kids cranking one cog: a bloody great statistically significant decline in global temperatures!

1985 Shimano introduces SIS indexed shifting and from here on we are on an out of control rollercoaster of ramped up graphing and pernicious upgrading: indexed gears, , STI, gripshift, 8 speed, 9 speed, 10 speed, flappy paddle shifters… and ultimately the end of the world as we know it*!!!

In a bid to correct this dreadful situation Charlie The Bikemonger is proud to be a purveyor of fine fixed and single speed bicycle produce and sincerely implores all cyclists to negate their shifty bits, build a one speed and make the world a better place. “Shift and a Polar Bear Dies!” stickers may be available shortly.

It has been suggested in some quarters that this is pernicious nonsense and mocks a serious issue. However the amount of gears is illustrative of the ability of industry to make and sell us more and more consumer goods, be it bikes with even more gears, or cars with air conditioning etc. And that’s where the real connection is.

This also illustrates that when people want to prove there is no global warming and there is nothing to worry about… it’s pretty damned easy to find the statistics that make your theory look credible.

* maybe

Sources: Temp info: Goddard Institute for Space Studies, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Earth Sciences Directorate.
Gear info: http://www.jimlangley.net/ride/bicyclehistorywh.html
----------------------------------

That’s just…. Wow.

I also received an email newsletter from Jacob, one of the Riding The Spine guys. The news was partly an official notice that they had completed their odyssey, with no one dead or in prison. Sean, Jacob, and Goat started out in July of 2006 in Alaska, following the Great Divide north to south.

Jacob’s newsletter reads in part:
“Living off as little money as possible and seeking adventure along the way, they cooked their own food, wild camped most every night, and found themselves looking back on some truly epic moments: being chased by a wolf in Alaska, riding for months in snow/subzero temperatures, getting held at gunpoint by the military during a drug bust in the Copper Canyon, riding down Central America's tallest peak, sleeping at the base of active volcanos in Costa Rica while monkeys howled into the night, exploring the Cricamola River within the Ngobe-Bugle indigenous reserve, kayaking through the Kuna Yala in Panama all the way to Colombia, dragging their bikes through dangerous landslides in Colombia/Peru, crossing over the White Mountains of the Andes, rafting the Cotahuasi River, facing the intolerable winds of Patagonia, enjoying the classic landscape of the Carretera Austral in Chile, and eventually finding themselves in Tierra del Fuego - the end of the world.”

They did not ride the ‘easier’ Pan American Highway, but rather criss-crossed the Divide on muddy, dusty backroads. Which makes it sound a lot easier than it was. There’s a book about it in the works.

Finally today::::
Ladles and Germs, START YOUR LIVERS!!

Occasional messages make it through to us from our Colorado field correspondent and officially unofficial Surly rider Chris Alabama.  Chris’s house, like many of yours, is less of an actual home-type house and more like a garage/stable/storage unit for a multitude of bikes, including several Surlies.  Not long ago Chris picked up a Big Dummy and has been sending reports.  His latest reads:

“Ridiculous amount of stuff. My friends moved out and didn't want all this misc stuff.   
    

This actually happened yesterday:

1. Luby asked me to help him with some finishing work at the new dirtlabs, so I loaded up the Dummy with construction tools, lunch, etc.

2. While at dirtlabs bike shop owner came in to drop off a fork and saw my Big Dummy. He asked a bunch of questions. He said a couple is doing their gift registry through him and they're building a Big Dummy; friends/family will just call him and pay for a pre-selected part.

3. My phone rang. A buddy called to see if he could come by and check out my Big Dummy.

4. The buddy pedaled over with his fiance. They said they were going to get one . . . as a gift registry! Hah!

5. Luby paid me with a bench vise, bench grinder, and a helmet he got out of the free bin at the Q, so I had to strap all that (in addition to all the tools I came with) to the snap/skate deck.

Success! I've really only done two things with that bike--answered a bike-load of questions, and free-loaded an insane collection of stuff.

Bama”

Good times.  Bama isn’t the only fruitcake in the Christmas basket that is Surly.  As I have noted here previously, we tend to attract a diverse crowd, inhabited by a larger than usual number of people who, for lack of a more accurate overarching term, I will admiringly call Freaks.  I do not mean they are ready for a life in the circus.  Frankly it’s getting harder all the time to figure out who is truly a freaky freak and who is just keeping up with the joneses.  Everybody’s got tattoos, piercings, motorcycles, terrible looking shoes and bad attitudes.  Oh, and customer service has gone down the toilets in this country too.  Why I…    Wait.  What was I talking about?  Oh yeah, the Freaks.  You know the type.  They pursue stuff they’re actually interested in.  They think for themselves.  They are sometimes intense, sometimes painfully shy, and often you simply won’t meet them because they’re not where you are, but rather somewhere else, somewhere that is not easily accessible and they are there in part to get away from people like you.  Sorry, but it’s true.  Anyway, because of these dispositions these people tend to live along the edge of society in many aspects.  They do not interact in ways that may be easily understood by most people.  They go places and do things and make their own equipment when they cannot find it or afford it.  They ride places that shouldn’t be rideable and test their limits not because they’re super competitive, ego driven A-types (though some are), but rather because they like the personal challenge, isolation and danger.  The Freaks do the stuff you won’t even think about until, like 24 hour racing, that freaky thing becomes mainstream and jerks like you and me start doing it (see also: people climbing Everest simply because they can afford to hire someone to drag them to the top). 

Among the multitude of people who I feel fit the category I have just outlined are the guys who just finished Riding The Spine.  They rode north to south along the ridge of mountains that are the result of tectonic plates rubbing up against each other, like insistent cats, pushing so hard they push the earth up.  Cool.  Basically, these guys rode the Continental Divide (though not religiously adhering only to the highest routes) along two continents from almost the top of the world to almost the bottom.  Best of all, they didn’t do it for a cause but rather because they wanted to do it.  They thought it up and figured out how to make it happen, without all the whimpering for free stuff and puffing up about the ride really being about a cause like everybody else does.  Goat, who rode this odyssey in bare feet, wrote recently to let us know that the trip is finally complete.  Goat, however, is not going home like the others.  Goat writes,

“I am turning around

heading north

fixing to meet up with

cyclo escalla andina

(some fine folk who are biking carrying full on climbing gear -- traveling the length of the andies -- climbing everything)”

 See what I mean?  One of the guys on this trip rode a Big Dummy, putting it through the most grueling real-world testing available.  Goat was riding a Chalupacabra, a custom Big Dummy-based cargo bike that sports Large Marge rims and Endomorph tires.  I look forward to updates from these guys about their future endeavors. 

Here's this guy, using our Pugsley to bring home the bacon, though he's technically 'bringing home the venison.'  Lots of people in Wisconsin seem to know this guy.  I don't.  


Surly has changed our socks.  The designs are the same, but they're now DeFeet Wooleators with our designs.  Why did we do it?  Because we like the way they fit, the wool content is higher, and we found we can offer them at the same price as our previous socks. 
Minor changes to the lineup:
>3" cuff height has been discontinued due to lack of interest, even from racer geeks, in wearing little tiny socks.  That's a step forward for civilization. 
>We got around to adding the Blockhead sock, which is brown with a black zigzaggy  stripe around the cuff.   We offer 4 designs total.
>They now come in 4 sizes, small, medium, large and extra large.  Small fits roughly 36-39 (euro) and  the XL fits up to about 48. 

This just in: Fixed gears are all the rage, and the surge of their popularity (in addition to bringing back color combinations not seen since the 80s and salvaging Brooks saddles and toeclips from the rubbage bin of existence) has sent numbers-crunching supply chain eggheads at distributors such as our overlords The Qube Pharm into conniptions as they stumble all over each other to saturate the market well after it has peaked.  Next on the horizon: Tall Bikes!  How do I know?  Because there is now an iPhone ap that enables pseudo-gutterpunk-wannabes to play tall bike jousting without the danger, excitement, or exercise involved in actual bike jousting.  I will point out here and now that I very much like fixed gear bikes.  I like tall bikes too.  I like road bikes and mountain bikes and old bikes and new bikes.  I have met very few bikes I didn’t think were rad.  It’s the people that make me stand-offish.  As my pal Dave has said, “Just because we both ride bikes that doesn’t make us friends.”

 Perhaps next in line to make it to the mainstream is bicycle sidecar racing.  The bikes, known as Sidehacks, have been around for a long time on motorcycles and on bicycles (particularly in BMX), but bicycle sidecars have never, to my knowledge, been in regular production or wide distribution.  Mostly these bikes are labors of love, custom built by the people who want to use them.  I was recently having a conversation about sidehacks with my pal Adam who designs bike stuff.  We thought it would be cool to do a contest where people have to build their own sidehacks within a limited budget, then we’d all meet and race them and get stupid and have a great day.  Adam was excited, and had been thinking about building one anyway.  He was “on board,” as the mouth breathing bean counters in the stagnant corporate backwater of the Qube Pharm say, but his excitement was tempered after he stumbled on this.  Remember Adam, and the rest of you: Everything you love and anything that is cool now will be co-opted, repackaged, and sold to people you hate.  

 In other noose, I have for several years heard murmurings about the doom of self induced apocalypse we seem to be headed for, brought on by our addiction to oil and convenience and waste, or, to put it bluntly, our addiction to selfish living.  I am not quite paranoid or pessimistic enough to believe that such a fate is inescapable, however I find it interesting that among people stockpiling bikes as the vehicle of this future world the Long Haul Trucker seems to be taking a role of some significance.  Feast your eyes, for example, on this bit of musing, culled by our man Fleck from Minneapolis’s own Hiawatha Cyclery Blog:

“If you are already a bicycle-enthusiast, you are likely well on your way with several worthy steeds in your stable. If you have a few decent bikes and some basic fix-it skill, you can keep them going for many years with a stash of extra tubes (and patches), tires, chains, cables, bolts, bearings, and a few bottles of oil and grease. On the other hand, if we take the long view, we can predict (and observe today!) that roads are not getting any smoother, so your 16-lb triathlon bike is probably not the best choice for post-apocalyptic mobility. What we really need is a modern analog to the 3-speeds that the Brits rode on their bumpy roads after WWII: something versatile, universal, hard to break, and easy to fix. In my opinion, the bike that exemplifies these virtues is the Surly Long Haul Trucker, preferably with 26" wheels.

I'm not going to get into specifics about why I think the LHT is a great choice for a bike to ride into an uncertain future, because there are other bikes on the market that have similarly desirable features. I just happen to think the LHT is among the best, and also one of the most affordable. Consider this: If you are starting from scratch, you could buy two LHT complete bikes (suitably equipped with racks, fenders, lights, and bags), one in your current size, and one in a slightly smaller size in case you shrink in the future, along with a dozen or so high-quality tires, a case of tubes (50), a half dozen each of brake and shift cables, some chains and cassettes, a couple middle chainrings, a few pounds of grease, a gallon of chain lube, and a basic tool kit. If you're really worried, get a couple replacement rims, spokes, hubs/freehubs, headsets, bottom brackets, and derailleurs. But if you have two identical bikes with a stash of extra parts and lubes (not to mention future scavenging), you should be able to keep at least one operational bicycle cobbled together for many decades. Depending on how crazy you want to get with your hoarding, the whole package should set you back around 3000-4000 2009-dollars. That sounds like a lot of money, but not if you consider that it is basically a lifetime bicycle supply, and not if you consider that you could as easily lose that money through investment losses or from inflation, with nothing to show for it.”

I for one am proud to work for the company that makes the official bike of the apocalypse.  And really, his reasoning works pretty well in the here and now.  Think about it. 

If you have written or called in the last month or so you may have heard back from Surly’s newest slampiece, Trevor “T$” Clayton.  This is him back in the day.   

A couple weeks ago when we were sitting directly underneath an Artctic high pressure front and temperatures were in teens below zero Farenheit,  I interviewed Trevor as way of introduction to you people.  T$ is a good fit here for a number of reasons, among them his knowledge and love of and commitment to bikes, his skillbilities as a cyclist, his enthusiasm for camping out in less than ideal conditions without much more than a pile of leaves to keep him from them, and his strange and unique but somehow effective taste in fashion. He sings/yells for a band called Hondo here in the MPLS. 

KB) State your name.

TC) Trevor Fucking Clayton

KB) From where do you hail?  

TC) I Hail from the misanthropic, wind swept plains of the Midwestern frontier. Originally birthed in the Unholy city of Minneapolis.  

KB) How many bikes in the stable? 

TC) 4 Surlys round out my stable of 8 fine steeds. 

KB) Tacos or disco? :   Disco is dead, Fish Tacos are divine.  [Circle gets the square.  That’s a Daily Double, since he was not only correct that Tacos was the correct answer, but as well noted that fish tacos spring from a well of divine grace.  –KB]

KB) Have you ever actually used up the ink in a highlighter marker?  

TC) No, but do you remember the High-Lighter "stash marker"? that was cool... 

KB) What sorts of riding/bikes interest you? 

TC) I like simplicity in my rides, no fuss, only the wind in my hair and the dark lord in my heart. I often think what my zombie apocalypse bike should look like. If I need to carry a rifle, a machete, camping gear and medical supplies; what bike would I trust "the rest of my life" with? It's a really tough decision. 

KB) How was the ride in this morning? 

TC) So Pure... Evil, Cold...

Five  Four  Three Ways Brauer Is Singlehandedly Saving Cycling:

3) Brauer doesn't care what clothes he has on, if his socks match, whether his shoes match his toe straps.  Sometimes he doesn't even care if he has clothes on. 
2) Brauer rides more than you.  He doesn't race much but when he does he is formidable competition.
1) Brauer is respectful to the point of reverence of people who ride, no matter how much or how little, as long as they ride.

Finally::::::

Recently overheard in the Surly office:

Unnamed person #1) Do you remember your birthday a couple years ago?
Unnamed person 2) Yeah, I was wasted. 
Person 1) You drove me home!
Person 2) I did?  Wow, that was a poor choice.

Hugs,
The DreamCrusher

Over the weekend I received a link to his website, Bicycle Beyond Bubbles, which details some of his adventures so far.  Riding across China looks especially interesting.    

The first thing I thought of when I heard the word bubbles is what I always think of when I hear the word bubbles.

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Speaking of China, Mattias Erlandsson recently sent us this photo of him with his Steamroller, taken in Shanghai for use on a Chinese fixed gear website.

Sounds like that fixie thing is really starting to catch on.  We should probably look into it. 

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On the topic of the Steamroller, Emilié from London owns one, and took the time to write us the following:

I'm a rider of many different types of bike, currently residing in London, UK.

A thread on the London Fixed Gear & Single Speed forum pushed me to write this:

"I've had the same roller for around 5 years. It's battered & bruised, dented, the rear end crushed and coldset, has been repainted once, had a drill taken to it on two different occasions. Travelled all over for polo, I've hit the thing with mallets, crashed it into walls & people, off drops and into a river, ridden it up and over plenty of dales, had Fiddy(RIP) try to maim it on the way to Brighton. Day in, day out and in all weather. The components have been changed more times than I can remember. The forks were replaced for Carbon, then for handsome dogs and are now something different once again. Run it with GI's from 41-87. Braked, brakeless, rear brake only. On and off road. It's been my only bike, my pretty bike, the beater, the workhorse, now it's just old faithful. The seatpost has been seized in place for over a year. It has seen a snapped crank, trashed wheels, disintegrating headsets. All manner of handle bar setups. It's been past its intended use and I'm amazed it's still going.

I'd include a photograph but that would cheapen this. Any picture would be just a phase in the existence of my bike. It would never capture the true beauty of her.

The best thing about Monika, Ms Roller to you, is that the f*cking thing still puts a smile on my face every time I ride it. 

If you have ever been in doubt as to whether you should buy a steamroller. Stop. Buy the frameset and build it with whatever. You'll end up with a great bike.

Here's the thread; http://www.lfgss.com/thread34320.html

All that is left is to say thank you. I couldn't have chosen a better frame.

Forever in your debt.

Emilié Object

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Speaking of Japan, we received our annual New Year’s post card from our Japanese distributor the other day.

2010 is the year of the tiger.  What does that mean?  It means that this year will be sensitive, emotional, capable of great love, and must guard against being too stubborn.  I know this because I read it on a menu at a Chinese restaurant, and although I don’t have a photo of said menu I do have this:

Here at Surly it’s the year of the pudding. 

Actually, every year is pretty much the year of the pudding.

Here's the Watch. (As in "Johnny made we watch this." )

http://www.foosmovie.com/foosball_presskit_johnny_horton.htm

Here we learn from the Great Mr Horton, "America doesn't love you. America loves a winner."

Conditions are favorable for development.

Here's the Warning:

Tornado seen in South MPLS, heading towards NE at 10-15 miles per hour.

This beast has been resurrected. Its rods turn once more.

Yes, Big Dummy facilitates all kinds of things. No, you can't have that color. Bikes at Work makes the trailer.

Luckily, Johnny ferried the Tornado (Tor - naah - doe) across town, wreaking his own special brand of non-lethal destruction... not to be confused with an actual scary Tornado, or this:

For more information about Tornados, read this:  http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/

For more information about Tornados, read this: http://www.tornadofoosball.com/about.htm

For more information about Toronados, read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldsmobile_Toronado

The new 26" wheel version of the larger sizes are part of this deal. Not all sizes will be arriving (woe be on you 60cm riders), but most will. They are cool. Trust me, I have one. Does it look a little goofy? Goofy like a fox!

700c wheel version http://surlybikes.com/uploads/blog/BK6856.jpg

26" wheel version http://surlybikes.com/uploads/blog/BK6858.jpg

Call your local bike shop and make them order you one.

I dare you.

Here's a picture of the Nuge.

We've received a shipment of Large Marge offset rims in both DH and XC versions. They're new, improved, choice. These parts now feature a welded seam, which is approxomately 40g lighter, and far more rad.

It's a good thing.

So I mention this because I thought you should know. These were our first of the new production run, shipped expressly to satiate demand. Demand is a hungry beast however.

That's a moderate thing.

But why mention panic? What's the point? Well, it's because we're all out of them already. Took about 2 hours.

That's a bad thing.

As they (we) say in Minnesota, "So there's that."

Seriously, people say that. It's pretty awesome.

In summary, we care about you, and want you to be happy. The next batch of rims will arrive mid-February.  It will be a bountiful order. I applaud your patience. Your lustful waking dream of Pugsley is very close to reality.

So there's that.